Pigeon tale

[Frank Granovski]

Yesterday, and getting late, my wife and I came out of the London Drugs on Victoria Drive. Half-way into the parking lot, where we were parked---lo and behold!! a pigeon ran out from under our car! It looked cold and under distress and it surely couldn't fly---poor thing. So after about 20 minutes, I caught it, and I put it in a box my wife had swiftly pulled out from our trusty old trunk. The birdie was drenched in oil! No wonder it couldn't fly! We brought it home and straight it went for a nice long bath. The little chicken---er, pigeon loved the warm water (while my wife removed all the oil). Next, the chicken got wrapped in a towel, and finally in it went into a big box with The Vancouver Sun, water and birdie food. This morning my wife got up early, being the early bird that she is, and saw that the chicken was dry and trying to fly. "Chicken" even talked to my wife and seemed happy as a happy bird could be. Chicken ate all its food, and seemed anxious for action, being a new day and now able to fly. My wife thought it needed some fresh air so she took it to the balcony. Suddenly, it flew! Onto my wife's plants! Onto her shoulder! Back to the plants! Then it dived to the lawn were the other chickens were feasting (which my wife had just fed!) And, of course, it began pecking away. Back up it flew to say, "Thank you," and then off it went forevermore...with my wife waving and with tears in her eyes.... Then I got up, and asked where our little chicken went. Doh.

Note: I mentioned The "Vancouver Sun" newspaper, so that's why I stuck this in here (The TOTEM Poll: Totally Off Topic, Everything Media) :-))

True story, by the way. And I was upset that I slept in and missed my chance at making a few clips---I guess it's true about the early bird getting the worm. I slept in and I missed out. :-((

[Tavis Shaver]

haha, snooze ya lose i guess. Too bad tho, it would've made some great footage.

Last year my girlfriend and i came across a crow, about four blocks from main and broadway, it was missing its tail feathers and could only hop/fly about 20 feet at a time.

After MUCH effort, we managed to capture it and bring it home. We were going to try to nurse it back to health at home and picked up a large cage for it to recouperate in. Unfortunately it was not a young crow so it was very set in it's aversion to people, possibly also from whoever/whatever cut off its tail feathers (they looked cut off), subsequently it was scared to pieces being around us. It wouldn't eat and would literally poop if you looked directly at it.

So alas our plan of nursing this amazing bird (crows are highly intelligent birds and very cool looking creatures if you get close enough to them to actually appreciate it) back to health was not to be.

We took it to the spca and managed to get a refund on the cage.

[George Brackett III]

Tavis- Have you ever heard of West Nile Virus? Several dead or sick crows in my area tested positive for it. It can be lethal to humans- stay away from crows!

[John Locke]

Frank,

I had a similar thing happen with a moose once.

[Jean-Philippe Archibald]

John, your moose couldn't fly too? :-)

[John Locke]

No, that was the tragic bit. I lived on the 25th floor.

[Frank Granovski]

I had a friend called, Moose. He died of a heart attack.

My wife anf I also picked up a crow last year at Kits Beach. It fell out of the nest.

I once helped nurse back a skunk. That's when my nickname was, Stinky. (rolleyes.gif)

[George Brackett III]

I rescued a toad from my pool last summer. Gave him CPR, he popped back to life, and hopped away. I know God loves me now.

[Keith Loh]

I walked by a 'trial of life' one time. This crow was attacking a robin. The robin was flat on the ground and the crow was pecking at it. I walked over to interrupt in my human way and thought I would save the robin. I ended up taking the robin in my jacket to an animal rescue shelter. They were actually dismayed that I had brought them a robin, explaining that it was just one of those things and that I should have let the crow finish preying on the robin. The next time that happens I'll just sit back and watch like Attenborough.

[Shawn Mielke]

My girlfriend likes to call me Moose Lips.
And sometimes Moose for Brains.
Fortunately for me, we don't live on the 25th floor.

[Joe Carney]

>>I rescued a toad from my pool last summer. Gave him CPR, he popped back to life, and hopped away. I know God loves me now.
<<
George, did you lick it's back and get high? If not, toooo bad.
Scare them and lick their backs hehehe.

[Tavis Shaver]

West Nile isn't this far west...yet.

[Rick Bravo]

I find toads in my pool all the time. The skimmer net makes a great JaiAlai cesta!

P.S. Toads don't fly too good and land even worse! Really freaks out the neighbors.

[Dylan Couper]

<<<-- Originally posted by John Locke : No, that was the tragic bit. I lived on the 25th floor. -->>>

John, you owe me a new keyboard. I read your comment and spat out a mouthfull of juice into it, laughing. Now its all sticky and gooey. Good thing I have a backup.

One time my woman and I rescued a pidgeon that couldn't fly and fed it for a few days until we could take it to the animal shelter (the one at Burnaby Lake). They looked at us like we were some kind of freaks for rescuing a pidgeon. I'm sure they probably fed it to a bear or deer or something as soon as we walked out the door.

[Keith Loh]

Dylan, that's the same place I took my robin! They really don't care to save the common birds, it seems.